Uzumaki Reborn
by TheLastShinobi
Summary: As Naruto awakens a new power during his fight against Haku, Orochimaru plots his revenge on Konoha. Naruto and the rest of of the rookie twelve fight incredible battles and love and jealousy are in the air. Who will make it out alive and who will succumb to the hatred of the Akatsuki?
1. The Land of Waves

**Hey (to anybody who actually read the first chapter of my other story) I've had a change of heart and a brilliant idea. This story will follow my main plot idea for the other story, but it starts much earlier; during Naruto's first C rank mission.**

**Uzumaki Reborn**

**Arc I: Hero of Konoha**

**I**

**The Land of Waves.**

'_Shit, Sasuke!'_ A young blond, spiky-haired boy with three scars on each cheek was laying on his back, his black-haired friend standing over him protectively. The amount of senbon needles protruding from his body was unfathomable, causing a knot of fear to clench in his stomach.

"Sasuke…why?" The Uchiha gave Naruto a sadistic smile.

"I don't know, my body reacted on its own…I had no time to think." As his lids fluttered closed and Sasuke collapsed, Naruto noticed a flicker of red in his Iris.

'_Sharingan' _

The young boy in the Ice mirrors smiled sadly as Naruto struggled to stand.

"I'm sorry that I have to kill you, but I need to protect my precious person." Haku prepared his senbon and began to step forward, when the young blond looked up at him. The gaze made him freeze.

'_His eyes…they weren't that colour before.'_

Naruto stood straight up, stiffer than a statue and breathed in deeply. His eyes were closed and he took a stance the older boy had never seen before. Naruto's left leg was slightly in front of his right leg and his arms were close to his stomach, the right above the left, and about a foot apart.

Naruto's eyes flashed open, and the sight unnerved the otherwise confident boy. A deep blue chakra began to swirl around him wildly, his eyes deepening to match the colour.

"Never, hurt my friends." The tone was so cold and calm, that it made the long-haired boy wonder how he would get out of this alive. He was already low on chakra, and keeping up this kekkei genkai took a lot out of him.

Haku came to his senses, noticing he was wasting time, and began rapidly firing senbon at Naruto, flying between the ice mirrors at high speeds. To his utter astonishment, the needles were burnt to a crisp by the incredible chakra forming around his opponent.

Haku continued to switch between the mirrors, trying to find a weak point in the immense amount of chakra surrounding Naruto.

'_What is he?'_

_Meanwhile_

"Summoning Jutsu!" Kakashi summoned his dogs to help him attack Zabuza.

'_There'_ Kakashi blocked an attack from his right side with a kunai, negating Zabuza's attempt to sever his head from his body. The bandage-wrapped man jumped back, preparing another attempt on Kakashi's life, when both of them stopped. The two looked towards Haku's Demon Ice mirrors Jutsu. Kakashi's single eye widened in shock at the scene before him.

"The…the mist is, fading." Sakura's anxious voice floated from somewhere behind the missing Nin and the copy ninja.

Zabuza stared in shock as the ice mirrors were completely obliterated by sheer chakra, shards of ice raining down upon the bridge they fought on. The first thing Zabuza saw scared him unlike anything had before. There was a young boy lying, motionless in between A blond haired kid, who was closer to him, and Haku, but what scared him, was the look of pure, straight out terror on Haku's face.

Kakashi took Zabuza's moment of surprise as an advantage.

"Chidori!" Blue lightning appeared in his palm as he dashed towards the back of the still startled Zabuza, aiming for the heart. In the distance, Haku's eyes widened.

"Zabuza-sama!" The young boy darted forward, his outcry startling Naruto enough for his chakra to recede and his eyes to return to their normal light blue.

A bright flash of light blinded everyone on the bridge as Kakashi's Jutsu pierced the heart of the missing Nin. As he dropped to his knees, Haku caught him, laying him down softly on the ground. Tears cascaded down his face, mixing with the fatal wound in Zabuza's chest. Haku was mumbling incoherently, the pain in his chest becoming unbearable. His mourning wail tore into Naruto as he put a hand on the boys shoulder.

Zabuza looked up to the blond, staring him straight in the eye with a ferocity that made Naruto ponder how he had the resolve to look anything but in pain. His whisper was barely caught on the wind, but Naruto heard him nonetheless. He nodded wordlessly as the dying man closed his eyes.

"Haku…be good, train hard, and live. Let them…give you purpose. Let them…" Zabuza gave a hacking cough, wheezing out his last few words. "Teach you…to love. I'm…sorry…Haku…" Zabuza's hand lifted slightly as Haku reached to squeeze it.

"Zabuza-sama." The hand went slack in Haku's grasp as he took a shuddering breath. He laid the hand down quietly as he stood up, his body wracking with silent sobs. Sakura walked up to them, pulling the broken boy into a comforting hug. He buried his head into her shoulder as he cried his heart out, the last person to care about him leaving the earth for good.

Kakashi looked over to the silent Naruto, watching him closely. The boys eyes were cast down. His back facing the group, he took a few steps forward before collapsing to his knees.

"Sasuke."

His voice was no more than a whisper, but Kakashi caught it. Looking farther a few feet ahead of Naruto, he noticed the still form of his cold student. Naruto crawled his way to the body of his friend, tear marks following his progress on the unfinished bridge. Sakura took notice of the moving from as the sight before her began to sink in.

A mocking laugh came from behind the pink-haired genin as pair of massive arms encircled her small form and dragged her backwards. The cold feeling of steel biting the nape of her neck prevented any thoughts of struggle.

An extremely short man appeared next to her as he continued to laugh menacingly.

"Well isn't this sweet, the amazing demon of the mist downed by a loser and his three little pigs, while his little boy-toy mourns him." His false smile disappeared quickly replaced by a tone of mockery and disgust. "It sickens me how weak you all are. Now I don't even have to kill him and I get the little whore as a bonus." His horrible grin re-appeared on his disturbing features.

Tears cascaded down Sakura's face as she came to terms with the situation they were in. From the look on Kakashi's face, there were quite a few bandits behind her and they had almost zero chance of survival. They were all going to die and she would be used as a sex slave for Gato's henchmen.

Her thoughts were interrupted as Gato took a step back, surprise flickering across his features. She looked to the spot where Gato was staring to make out a blurred form through her tears. A voice that could slice through steel and freeze hell cut into the air around them.

"You will not hurt my friends." His tone began to rise with each word.

"You will not threaten us. You will not continue to suck this town try. You will not continue to ruin lives. All my life, I've been called a demon in my village; I was hated for no reason by everyone around me. It's time I gave a reason for them to hate me, to fear me." By now Naruto was shouting. "It's time I redeemed my title, AS THE DEMON OF KONOHA!" The amount of intense blue chakra that erupted from Naruto's body was frightening even Sakura, as the man who held her took a step back and let her go.

The wind picked up as Naruto's body began to change and lift into the air from the chakra coursing through his body. His hair grew slightly longer and thicker as his Hitai-ate came undone and fell to the ground. The tips of his blond hair became an intense blue and the colour of his eyes deepened to match the chakra ravishing the bridge around him.

A long blue, curved blade grew from the top part of his wrist on each arm. With his fists clenched, the blades extended to about two feet, the tips level with the bottom of his curled fist.

While the group on the bridge watched in fear, Kakashi stared in curiosity. How…this isn't the chakra of the nine tails…what is he? Kakashi watched in pure shock as, even with his activated sharingan, he could not track the speed at which Naruto moved.

To Naruto, everyone was standing still. The whole world was different shades of blue, with his friends' chakra signatures being almost white, and the others being a dark purple. One chakra signature was black.

He lunged forward, piercing the centers of all the evil chakra signatures, obliterating them flawlessly. After was seemed like fighting against people who were trying to fight in syrup for near ten minutes, Naruto began to grow tired, defeating the last few and deactivating the odd blue-world.

However, what seemed like ten minutes to Naruto was ten seconds in real-time. Before him stood a terrified Gato as he panted, his blue chakra was receding and the bloodied arm blades fading from existence. He took the few steps forward as he stood over Gato, who had nothing but a hundred foot drop into the ocean at his back.

"Tell the devil I said hi." A small blue sphere was formed in Naruto's palm as he shoved it into the stomach of the miniscule man, promptly ripping it to shreds as he fell backwards off of the unfinished bridge, his body bouncing off a stray beam and creating a nearly inaudible splash as his body was swept away by the currents of the ocean.

Naruto turned to his friends shocked expressions and gave them a tired smile. As the last remnants of dark blue faded from his eyes, Naruto toppled forward, fainting due to chakra exhaustion.

The last thing he remembered before falling into the welcoming abyss of darkness was the blurred form of Sasuke's twitching fingers.

Authors Notes:** So…what do you think? Remember to review, no flames (I get enough of that from my nine year old brother). I had an idea for my other story, but then I realized this would fit **_**much**_** better with the plot I had planned out for that. This will follow the anime up until the chunin exams, and then my story will pan-out from there.**


	2. An old Friend

**So here's chapter two for you guys. Thanks to williamsangel88 and Silent767 for being my first reviewers, you guys are awesome! This chapter is sort of a filler chapter, explaining everything that's happening. So far I plan on writing maybe four to five Arcs, each being somewhere between 50k to 100k words. Maybe more. Depends on how busy I get in school, with me being in grade nine **_**and**_** in an advanced program…homework is hell. **

**Enough of me rambling, on with the story!**

**Disclaimer: I do not, in any form own Naruto and/or any of the characters pertaining to the show, manga or any other Naruto related products. [Same goes for the Pokémon related stuff (Yes, there will be Pokémon related stuff)]**

**Uzumaki Reborn**

**Arc I: Hero of Konoha**

**An old Friend**

Our young blond hero opened his eyes slowly, seemingly in pain. His body was stiff all over and he felt extremely parched and ravishing hunger, as if he had just run ten laps around Suna in his winter gear. Turning his head to his right, he noticed a young boy sharpening a long Katana that was emitting a faint green aura. He wore a simple light green long-sleeved shirt with a slightly low V-neck and open sleeves.

Looking up slightly more, Naruto came to the realisation that he knew the boy from somewhere. The boy's fair blond hair was much longer than he last remembered, and he was definitely older, but the young face in front of him was unmistakeable.

"E-Emerald?" The young boy looked up from sharpening his Katana, slightly shocked at his name being called. Setting the blade back in its sheath, which Naruto only now noticed was leaning on the side of a completely white bed, he smiled lightly.

"Hello Naruto nii-san." The boy's voice was soft and caring, his small smile pulling a massive grin onto Naruto's features. Naruto slowly lifted himself onto his elbows and leaned over to hug the younger blond tightly, receiving the same reaction. Pulling back, he asked,

"How have you been, I haven't seen you since you were…man, you were four back then!" Naruto grinned wider.

"Are you still living in that wretched dump?" The younger boy shook his head, a full smile on his face.

"Nah, Yellow-san and I got part time jobs here, helping out the nurses. They let us sleep in some of the nicer rooms upstairs." Naruto only noticed now he was in a hospital as he looked around, taking in the IV drip attached to his arm.

"Speaking of which, I should inform the nurses that you're up and about. You've been in a coma for nearly a month nii-san."Naruto looked at him in surprise.

"A-a whole _month_!" Emerald turned his head when he reached the door, smiling once again.

"Nii-san, first, you were supposed to be killed from chakra exhaustion, but then you surprised the nurses by recovering. _Then_ you were pronounced to be in a coma for near nine months, and still not be able to walk after a year, yet it has only been one month and you look like you have enough energy to go home and be back with your team in a week."

With that, Emerald left.

XxX

A nervous Hinata was walking through the bustling hallways of the Konoha Shinobi hospital, a small bundle of hand-picked flowers in her hand. As she approached the now-familiar room of a certain blond-haired genin, a young boy, no more than nine years old, was closing said door. The boy turned to look at her and smiled.

"H-Hello, may I ask w-what your name is?" The young blond stuck out his hand.

"Name's Emerald, are you a friend of Naruto?" Hinata shyly shook the boy's hand.

"Yes, my-my name is Hinata."

"Naruto woke up not long ago, I'm going to inform the nurse, so don't talk to him for too long." He gave a lopsided grin at the small blush dusting the older girl's cheeks and dashed off to find the nurse.

Opening the door slowly, as to not startle the room's current tenant, Hinata was greeted with a grinning Naruto. She placed the flowers that she was hiding behind her back into an empty vase and walked to the blonde's side. Naruto's grin faltered slightly as she frowned at him, and then disappeared completely as the young girl knocked his head with her fist, albeit lightly.

"Naruto-kun, you could have gotten severely injured, _and_ you've made Sakura and Kakashi-sensei suspicious." Naruto gave her a sheepish grin and rubbed the back of his neck.

"Sorry Hina-chan," Naruto's visage became slightly darker, "But that man Gato had it coming to him. He was a monster and I just...well…you know…"

Hinata sat beside Naruto and hugged him.

"I know, you lost control, but if this keeps up people will begin to suspect you and eventually me." She looked into his sparkling blue eyes and lightly kissed him, earning a small blush from both of them. Ever since Naruto had first met Hinata, the pain and suffering in both of their lives was lifted somewhat and shared between them. It had happened when both of them were six; Naruto had still been in the orphanage at the time.

Hinata had been walking back from the park when she was ambushed by some older boys. Naruto could tell one of them was a Hyuga and was spouting something about his fathers' death being her fault and her being a monster. Naruto, knowing what it felt like to be hated, rushed to her aid and scared the boys off.

-Flashback-

Naruto turned to look at the slightly bruised girl behind him and held out a hand to her.

"The name's Naruto, Naruto Uzumaki! What's yours?" Hinata mumbled something incoherent.

"Huh, didn't quite catch that?"

"My name is Hinata." She stared at her feet for a moment and spoke up again.

"Why did you help me?" Naruto stumbled in surprise and looked at her softly, making her blush.

"Because I know what it's like to be called a demon and a monster, everyone in the village hates me for no reason. I…just didn't want to see that happen to someone else."

"I don't hate you." Naruto snapped his head up in shock.

"R-really?" Hinata nodded slightly. Naruto grinned and shoved his hands into his pockets.

"Wanna be friends?"

"S-sure Naruto-kun." Naruto walked back into the orphanage with the biggest grin anyone had ever seen on his features.

However, it would be almost two years before either of them realised that they were, in fact, very different from the other children.

At eight years old, an assassination attempt was made on Naruto's life that almost succeeded. A kunai had imbedded itself into Naruto's abdomen and when Hinata caught sight of the attacker, demonic chakra began to flow from her body.

The attacker panicked, thinking he targeted the wrong person and attempted to attack Hinata instead. This caused the demonic chakra in _Naruto_ to awaken, leading to the man fleeing for his life.

The next day, the two met up at the Konoha library to research where the demon chakra was coming from. After a few minutes of search, Hinata surmised that their chakra came from demons sealed within their bodies, later coming up with the conclusion that the story on the Kyuubi attack on Konoha was not entirely true.

With the facts that Naruto's birthday was the night of the Kyuubi attack and his chakra had an orange tint to it, Hinata guessed that he was the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki. Looking into her theory of Naruto containing a Bijuu, they snuck into the restricted part of the library to find scrolls on the other Bijuu.

According to the scrolls, a man known as the sage of six paths had encountered and fought the ultimate demon, the ten-tailed Juubi. By sealing nine of his tails, the sage created the nine Bijuu known today.

The one tails was some sort of sand racoon, the two tails a darkness cat, three tails some sort of shark turtle, the four tails a massive monkey, the five tails a creature resembling a dog, the six tails a slug, the seven tails a beetle, the eight tails some sort of ox-octopus mix and the nine tails was a fox. None of these resembled the odd chakra that had been glowing from Hinata's body.

The mystery unsolved, the two left the library, deciding not to ask any questions on the topic.

It was around this time that Naruto came up with the idea that they should train extensively in secrecy, to become better than anyone at the academy. To hide their strength, Hinata played the stuttering shy girl while Naruto played the class clown and idiot. Their plan worked perfectly and nobody took notice of the hidden strength of their two classmates.

Naruto looked back at Hinata and smiled lightly.

"You know what, why don't we go all out in the chuunin exams?" She looked at the blond sceptically.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" The boy nodded his head confidently. Noticing her reluctant expression, Naruto tried to reason with her.

"Ok, how about we make a deal? When we make it to the finals, _then_ we can go all out." His lavender eyed girlfriend eyed him curiously.

"When? You seem quite confident in our strength, Naruto-kun." Naruto chuckled and pecked her cheek. Hinata looked thoughtful for a moment and began to speak her mind.

"Naruto, when are we going to tell everyone that we're dating?" Naruto was about to give her an answer, when a number of footsteps coming down the hall alerted him to the presence of others. He grinned at her and shuffled side-ways in the bed for a bit, patting the now open space beside him.

"How about now?" Hinata smiled softly and sat down next to him, leaning her head on his shoulder. He wrapped his right arm around her waist, laying his left hand over her right hand in front of them, squeezing it reassuringly. He closed his eyes and leaned his cheek against her hair, smelling the light strawberry shampoo that she uses.

His blissful moment off peace was interrupted by the door busting open, revealing a worried Sakura, Choji and Ino, a bored Shikamaru, an annoyed Kiba and an indifferent Shino and Sasuke.

All seven genin stopped, dumbstruck at the sight before them.

"What the- Dobe, what are you doing!"Sasuke was the first to recover and he looked quite miffed. Naruto smirked at his teammate, eyes still closed.

"Spending quality time with my girlfriend," Naruto opened his eyes and playfully glared at the group, "Which you bunch are _quite_ rudely interrupting." Naruto smiled at their stupefied expressions. Hinata smacked him lightly on the arm.

"Naruto, don't you think we should have broken it to them a little more slowly?" Naruto grinned as a shadow clone dropped from the ceiling above them, holding a camera.

"Nope."

**Hah, I ended that so spontaneously! To my readers, I might not update for a while, I plan on writing at least three more chapters to keep ahead, just in case I end up not finishing a chapter on time for an update, so don't expect an update until, maybe the end of November.**

"**The two most common elements in the Universe are Hydrogen and stupidity, but not in that order." -Anonymous**


	3. The Truth About Strength

**Yeah, TheLastShinobi is back baby! By the way, if any of you know the Japanese words for Jutsu, like how Bunshin is clone and Kage means shadow, or if you know a site that will translate them, please tell me! It would really help.**

**Don`t forget to review ;)**

**Disclaimer: I do not, and probably will not (but hey, you never know) own Naruto or any of its characters or techniques. However, the Imozogan, and aura techniques are mine (except for aura sphere, that belongs to Pokémon, of which I also don`t own.)**

**Uzumaki Reborn**

**Chapter III**

**The Truth about Strength**

_**You can skip this if you want to**_

_Name: Uzumaki Naruto_

_Age: 13_

_Rank: Genin_

_Nature: Wind_

_Bloodline: Imozogan (Aura)_

_Girlfriend: Hyuga Hinata_

_Jutsu:_

_Shadow clone, Aura Sphere, Air Bullet, Aura Strike: Uzumaki Barrage (working on Rasengan) Secret Aura Technique: Roar of the Heavenly Lion_

_Bloodline Abilities: Stage 1 of the Imozogan; Spirit sight (like a weak Byakugan, Naruto can only see the initial 'starting' point of the chakra network However, unlike the Byakugan, Naruto can also see the soul/spirits of those around him.)_

_Summons: Toads_

o.O

Hinata and Naruto walked towards the forest of death together, hand-in-hand. They had just passed the first part of the exam and were waiting to commence the second. Naruto stole a glance at his girlfriend and smirked. Ever since the day that all of their friends had barged into the hospital, the two genin had dropped their act of stuttering and being the village idiot. However, neither of them had actually shown their peers how strong they had become. None of them knew that they had been receiving secret training from Naruto's godfather; Jiraya of the Sannin. Hinata had almost perfected her advanced form of the Jyuuken and was learning a water jutsu. Naruto had confidence that they would both make it far in the chuunin exams.

He himself had created his own fighting style that he called the Spirit Fist. Every punch and kick was spontaneous, yet flowing, with no real style, but what made it unique was that Naruto would release pulses of aura with every punch and kick, allowing him to strike his opponent, even if his advances are blocked.

As they made it to the gates of the forest, they listened to Anko as she gave them the rules for the second part of the exam. He said goodbye to Hinata as the two separated to meet with their teams and take their places at their designated gate.

o.O

'_Man this is nasty' _He didn't know how, but suddenly he was stuck inside a massive snake.

'_Wait, snake...what did sensei say about snakes...Oh...crap'_

"Shadow clone jutsu." The snake that had attempted to swallow him exploded from the mass of Naruto's suddenly appearing in its abdomen.

"Now where is my team?" Naruto began to walk in a random direction when an explosion sounded off in the distance behind him. Turning around, Naruto tried to pinpoint where the explosion had come from.

'_Man, I hope Sasuke didn't do something stupid.'_

Following the sounds of battle, Naruto found Sasuke backed up against a tree. He was fighting it out with some girl that had an extremely long tongue and was using snake based attacks. Naruto watched as the girl opened her mouth to an extreme extent and Orochimaru emerged from the body.

His neck became elongated, making him resemble a snake even more than he already did. His head shot forward and Naruto chose this moment to strike.

"Aura sphere!" Naruto jumped to the braches below, slamming his attack into the side of Orochimaru's head. The snake Sannin fell to the forest floor, bouncing off of a few branches before regaining his bearings.

"What the hell, you didn't need to save me dobe, I could handle him on my own!" Naruto gave Sasuke an incredulous look. Sakura dropped next to him and crossed her arms.

"Yeah, Sasuke-kun would have beaten him to a pulp!"

"Sakura, no matter how great 'Sasuke-kun' is, I highly doubt he, or any one of us, can beat one of the Sannin." Sasuke looked shocked while Sakura looked confused.

"You mean to tell me that-"

"Yes, _that_," Naruto pointed at Orochimaru, "Is Orochimaru, traitor to Konoha and holder of the snake summons contract. Now, I don't like it, but we have to run, _now_!"

The three began to jump through the trees, Orochimaru hot on their heels. Naruto bit his thumb and drew blood as he slammed his palm onto a branch.

"Summoning Jutsu!" Naruto summoned Gamakichi and Gamatatsu, who proceeded to jump onto his shoulders.

"Hey Naruto, what's up."

"Kichi, Tatsu, I need you guys to spray some oil behind us."

The two toads spun around on Naruto's shoulders as they began to spray a steady stream of oil towards Orochimaru. Naruto stopped and looked towards Sasuke.

"Aim your phoenix flower jutsu at the oil." Sasuke raised an eyebrow, but complied, just as Naruto enhanced the attack by adding his own air bullets. Each phoenix flower doubled in size and then created a massive flame thrower.

"Uh, Naruto, that isn't stopping the creepy snake-man." Sakura was shivering slightly from the adrenaline. Naruto peered through the fire and took note of the black form emerging from the flame.

Acting on instinct, Naruto grabbed a decent sized rock and wrapped it in explosive tags. As he cocked his arm back, he yelled out a warning.

"Tatsu, Kichi, dismissed. Guys run!" Naruto allowed his teammates a five second head start before chucking the rock into the flames. Not even bothering to make sure the tags caught fire; Naruto followed the quickly receding teens as quickly as he could.

The following explosion could be seen by all the teams throughout the forest and left a mile wide crater in the forest. Orochimaru was blasted straight through the gates on the other end of the forest, losing both arms in the process.

o.O

A slightly charred team seven emerged from the forest and began to approach the gates. Just before reaching the tower, the team was confronted by a blue blur heading towards them, causing Sasuke and Sakura to get into fighting stances. Naruto, however, opened his arms.

"Naruto!" Three voices cried out at the same moment, two warning, but the third in happiness. As the blur hit Naruto, he fell backwards, holding onto it tightly and laughing.

"Well it's nice to see you too." Sasuke and Sakura looked confused until Kiba and Shino walked up to them.

"I have never seen Hinata move at such speeds before." Shino cocked an eyebrow in curiosity.

As Hinata let Naruto sit up, she took notice of his missing the top part of his orange jumpsuit. She gave him a stern look.

"Naruto, that explosion was your fault, wasn't it?" Naruto grinned and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. Before he could respond, the group was interrupted by three bodies flying from the forest, all three knocked out with fist sized indents in their skulls.

Three figures followed the bodies out of the forest. The first was a girl with her hair in two side buns and had scrolls hidden all over her body. The second had long dark blue hair and wore the normal robes of a Hyuga and the third wore a bright green spandex suit and was yelling something about youth.

As the two groups took note of each other, the boy stopped his rant. Naruto and the spandex wearing boy looked at each other for a moment.

"Naruto?"

"Bushy Brows?"

There was an awkward silence that was broken by the two charging at each other and embracing each other in a massive hug. Naruto backed up and held the older boy at arm's length.

"Dear Kami, Lee I haven't seen you in ages! Fancy us meeting here of all places!"

The teens around them looked at the two boys like they were a new species of humans.

"Naruto, how do you know Lee?" Neji asked curiously. Lee slung his arm around Naruto's shoulders.

"Naruto and I were roommates in that most unyouthful orphanage."

"Yeah, Lee was my first friend." Everyone looked at them oddly, causing the two to become slightly self conscious. They looked at each other, then down at themselves and back at each other. Lee furrowed his eyebrows.

"Naruto, why are you most unyouthfully not wearing a top?" Naruto blushed slightly.

"Uh, I kind of, sort of…blewuphalfoftheforestusingpa perbombsandafire?" Sasuke and Sakura laughed at Naruto's attempt to hide his actions from Hinata as she walked up to him and punched the top of his head.

"I told you to be careful, you could have killed yourself and your teammates!" Sakura walked up to Hinata and placed her hand on the smaller girls shoulder.

"Hinata, leave him be a bit, he _did_ save us from being pulverised by a Sannin." The group once again looked at Naruto with incredulous expressions.

"You WHAT!" Naruto looked around and shrugged his shoulders, grinning and blushing like mad. He scuffed his foot into the ground.

"It-it wasn't much." Sasuke almost blew him to bits simply with a death glare.

"Naruto, as much as I hate to admit it, you did save us." Sasuke walked up to him and stared him in the face.

"So, dead-last, when did you get so good, what trick did you use" Naruto just smirked and began walking to one of the entrances to the tower. Sasuke curled his fist in anger, he would _not _be ignored.

"Answer me dammit!" Naruto stopped and answered Sasuke's question without turning around.

"Sasuke, have you ever asked yourself why people are who they are?"

"What are you talking about Naruto." It was more a statement than a question.

"You, Sasuke, are a genius. The _almighty_ Uchiha. Everyone knows you; everyone knows what you can do. People will never underestimate you, for they know _just_ what you can do and accomplish. Neji is the Hyuga prodigy, the best one in generations, lots of people fear him. Lee cannot use Ninjutsu or Genjutsu, yet his taijutsu is off the charts. He runs around proving to everyone that he can be a ninja, showing them what he is capable of."

"Stop beating around the bush!" The others all looked on in interest.

"They call you geniuses, whether of hard work or natural talent. You are all simply idiots," Naruto looked at Lee, "Sorry Lee. The world knows what you can do, so they will find something to counter it. I am the idiot, the fool, the dead last. Nobody expects anything from me and that is _exactly what I wanted_." Now everyone was confused.

"For all your life, you have never truly seen me. Only two have ever seen me. You have not seen Naruto, only his mask. This mask is my greatest weapon and will be the downfall of anyone who underestimates me. If you do not believe me, ask Hinata. She shares my mask. " With that, Naruto entered the tower.

O.o

_One month later_

'_I can't wait for my match against Sasuke!' _Naruto was sitting in the contestant's box at the chunin exams. With him were Hinata, Sasuke, Gaara, Temari, Kankuro, Shikamaru and a ninja from the land of Iron.

The boy wore a white, open V-neck silk top with the sleeves rolled up just under his elbows. He had black cargo pants that flayed open at the bottom and wore nothing on his feet. He had a massive golden long sword strapped to his back, with the tip of the sword coming to an abrupt point. The hilt was a two headed dragon, with one head resting along one side of the blade, its snout facing the tip of the sword. The necks twisted around each other and merged into the body. The body was long, acting as the handle, and then tapered off into a slightly curving tail. At the end of the tail was a golden pointed gem that was the brilliant colour of pure honey.

The boy was slightly shorter than everyone else in the room, and the sword looked way too big on him. His hair was white like Jiraiya's and tied into a ponytail that fell to his mid-back. One thin strand of hair fell to his cheek across his left eye and another fell just above his right eye. The tips of his hair were a green the colour of fresh grass, with a strip the same colour running straight through the middle of his hair. He looked kind of lonely, so Naruto walked up to him. He stuck out his hand for a handshake.

"Hi, my name's Naruto Uzumaki, what's yours?" The boy looked startled, but recovered quickly, shaking Naruto's hand.

"Elijah, Elijah Kagelupo." Before either could say more, the proctor called out the first match.

"Would Hyuga Neji and Hyuga Hinata please make their way to the field?" Hinata looked at her cousin as he descended the steps. She turned to follow him, but was stopped by a pair of gentle arms wrapping around her waist. Naruto rested his chin on her shoulder.

"Beat him, but don't get hurt, okay. Show them the strength of a true genius." She returned his embrace and he leaned in to kiss her lightly. He whispered against her lips, "I love you Hina." She smiled and whispered back. "Love you too, Naru-kun." He let her go and watched as she gracefully descended the steps. He sighed softly, a smile gracing his lips as he placed his hands in his pockets.

Somewhere behind him, Elijah and Kankuro roared in laughter as Shikamaru muttered something about being troublesome. Ignoring them, Naruto leaned on the rail and watched his girlfriend intently.

'_I know you're good Hina-chan, but please don't get hurt.'_

The proctor's arm rose into the air and chopped down.

"Let the first round of the chunin exam tournament begin!"

o.O

'_Why can I not hit this measly failure?'_

Neji and Hinata had been fighting for the past four minutes, and neither one had hit the other. Neji had been on a full-out frontal assault, but could not hit the extremely evasive Hinata.

"Give in to fate, you cannot defeat me." He continued his assault on the younger Hyuga. She sighed at her cousins actions.

"Stop underestimating me Neji." Her fierce tone of voice and lack of Nii-san at the end of his name caused Neji to falter slightly. Hinata took her advantage and closed of every single tenketsu point in his arms at a speed much quicker than any could see. As his arms hung helplessly at his sides, Neji growled.

"You will still lose, a failure like you will always lose to fate." Hinata closed her eyes and formed her hands into a seal. "I'm sorry Neji."

Before Neji could think, Hinata yelled out a strained 'Kai' and was in front of him in a flash. The following kick shattered two of his ribs and sent him straight into the air, thirty feet above the ground. At the apex of his flight, Hinata reappeared above him, spinning like a top. She lashed her leg out and, still spinning, hit him in the jaw. There was an audible 'crack!' and seconds later, there was a Neji sized crater in the arena.

Hinata landed gracefully on her feet and turned to where Neji had been plowed into the earth. She gave a curt bow and walked off, heading for the contenders box.

A stunned proctor yelled out to an equally stunned crowd.

"Winner of the first match, Hyuga Hinata!" The crowd erupted into cheers.

Up in the box, the Konoha genin were slack-jawed.

"When did Hinata get so strong?" Then, Sasuke, Kankuro and Shikamaru turned at a groan from Naruto.

"Aw man, why'd she hold back so much." As the boy mumbled to himself, the three others looked ready to have their eyes pop out of their sockets.

Hinata chose this time to emerge from the steps and dashed into Naruto's arms.

"I did it!"

"Yeah, and you held back… a _lot_!" Hinata blushed lightly. "Naru-kun, I – well, he's family." Naruto smiled and kissed the top of her head. "Yeah, but I wanted to see you beat him up a little more." Naruto's slightly whiny voice made Hinata giggle lightly while she whacked his chest slightly.

"Well, now you get to give Sasuke a beating even earlier." Naruto smirked as the proctor called for him and his duck-butt haired teammate to get ready for their fight.

Naruto jumped from the contestants box and met his friend in the center of the arena.

"Don't embarrass yourself too much, dobe." Sasuke smirked.

"Don't go cut yourself after I whup your ass, emo-teme." Naruto returned Sasuke's smirk. The proctor raised his arm straight in the air and announced, "et the second match of the chunin exams between Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto begin!" He dropped his arm and jumped out of harm's way.

The two tensed in preparation for a charge, when they were interrupted by gasps flying through the crowd. Both stumbled slightly as they looked up towards the Kage box to see the Kazekage get blasted through the glass and into the arena. Two black blurs followed him and landed to stand in front of the man, who could now be identified as Orochimaru.

The two men wore black cloaks with red clouds on them. One had spiked blue hair and looked oddly like a shark, while the other had long black hair in a ponytail and eyes that reminded Naruto of Sasuke.

Within moments of impact with the ground, Orochimaru was consumed by black flames until only his ashes remained. Naruto turned as he heard a gasp from his side. He turned slightly to see Sasuke's fully matured Sharingan glaring at the man with black hair.

"ITACHI!" In a blind rage, Sasuke ran towards his brother, Chidori blazing. The man calmly grabbed the younger Uchiha's wrist and twisted it, dispersing the Jutsu. Less than five seconds later, Sasuke let out an anguished scream and fell to the floor, limp.

Naruto could hear two thumps behind him as Itachi pulled out a Kunai and dropped it. The moment it touched the ground, a barrier appeared between the arena and the crowd, leaving the five figures to fight it out without interruption. The barrier created, however, was transparent. (Think of the barrier that the sound four used, but it`s cylindrical and transparent, so that the outside world can see what`s happening inside.)

The two figures behind Naruto walked forward and he identified them as Hinata and Shikamaru. Being slightly confused, Naruto decided he wanted answers.

"Who are you and what are you doing here!" The blue haired man laughed.

"My name is Kisame, and my partner here is Uchiha Itachi. We, my enthusiastic little friend, are from the Akatsuki. We came here, for your hidden friend." He gave a sickening smile that made the three Genin's insides churn. Then he charged.

"Shika, Hinata-chan, take fish-boy, I'll handle Emo-teme senior." Kisame smirked and dove at Naruto, planning to shave him to bits. He was caught very much by surprise when his blade was blocked by a blade easily as massive. He did a double-take.

"Where did you get that sword!" Naruto smiled.

"A souvenir from my fight with Zabuza-san." For indeed, Naruto was holding the blade of the demon of the bloody mist. Kakashi had retrieved the blade from their fight, and Naruto had taken a liking to it. He had Ero-sennin place a storage seal on his right palm so that Naruto could summon the blade without having to carry it on his back.

Kisame couldn't ponder with thoughts of the blond for much longer, as he had to dodge a Jyuuken strike from behind and a quick moving shadow from the side. Naruto took this opportunity to charge at Itachi, who took out a katana to defend himself from the massive sword held by Naruto.

The Uchiha was slightly impressed with the Genin's ability to wield the giant weapon. Itachi knew he was fast, yet this boy matched his speed with a sword easily four times the weight of his katana. He decided not to delay any longer and activated his Mangekyou Sharingan and stared the boy straight in the eye.

Moments later, the scream of pure emotional pain that ripped through Naruto's throat stopped all movement, whether inside or outside the barrier. The boy stabbed Kubikiribocho into the ground and leaned on it heavily. His whole body was shaking heavily, his eyes wide as tears streamed from them freely. All who knew Naruto, and even a few of those who didn't, were in shock, as they had never seen the boy cry, under any circumstance.

As a drop of blood found its way into the stream of tears and onto the ground, Kisame looked to his partner.

"Itachi, what did you do to him?" Itachi frowned when he noticed Naruto's shaking slow down and eventually cease, completely ignoring his comrade's question. The tears ceased with the shaking, but another drop of blood emerged from each of his eyes. The boy slowly stood straight, his hair covering his eyes. The blood stopped and the boy pulled his sword out of the ground with only one hand.

Kisame suddenly noticed that the female genin wasn't paying him any attention and was within reach of Samaheda. He failed to notice the tips of Naruto's hair become a dark red, similar to Gaara's and become slightly longer and spikier. Some in the stands could swear that the Yondaime had come back from the dead.

One moment, Samaheda was on a crash course for the Hyuga and the next, the boy was in front of him, holding off his weapon with a single hand. On the other side of the arena, a crash was heard as Kubikiribocho slammed into the wall, Itachi's throat millimeters from being cut by the half circle and being held there by the shadow clone.

Just as Kisame moved to shred the boy, everything seemed to slow down. The boy ducked backwards and pushed Hinata out of the blade's path, then swung his sword upwards with one hand. To Kisame's utter horror, his blade was ripped from his grasp and sent flying towards the wall of the arena on the opposite side of Itachi. Naruto continued to spin, using his momentum to kick Kisame a good ten feet into the air.

He stabbed his blade into the ground once more and began to perform a set of handseals so quick that only Itachi could see his hands, and even to him they were blurring. Almost all shinobi in the crowd took note of Itachi's gasp of surprise as Naruto completed his hand seals.

The blond crouched on all fours, his body curling in on itself as he called out, "Secret Aura Technique: Roar of the Heavenly Lion!" Naruto arched his back and let out a roar that some thought made the Kyuubi's roar sound like it was merely purring. The ground around the boy completely shattered and tore apart in a ten meter radius and from his mouth, a lion made of chakra emerged. It shot towards the still flying body of Kisame and went right through him. When it emerged, there was a transparent form of the man being held in the lion's paws before it was absorbed into the lion's mouth.

Once fully absorbed, the lion curled up in the air and imploded, leaving no trace of it having existed. Kisame's body suddenly turned a sickly shade of grey and fell limply to the floor. Everything was deathly quiet as Naruto turned to Itachi, who gasped in surprise for the second time that day.

Everyone could hear the words spoken by Itachi.

"This is not possible, you cannot have a Doujutsu!" Itachi dispatched Naruto's clone and he took a Taijutsu stance.

"Nothing is Impossible." Itachi charged at Naruto, looking to take advantage of the blond's newfound cockiness. He began a controlled flurry of punches and kicks at incredible velocity's, but he could not hit the boy. Naruto simply weaved in between the attacks, not even removing his hands from his pockets.

As Itachi sent a straight-armed punch at Naruto, the boy crouched and spun under it, then leapt onto the outstretched arm, spinning once more to deliver a spinning axe kick to the side of Itachi's head, while Itachi simultaneously brought a lightning covered fist to Naruto's stomach.

The two slid apart and nothing happened for a moment. The Naruto knelt down and coughed up a large amount of blood. Itachi stepped forward for the finishing blow, when he too stumbled to his knees and vomited as blood began to seep from his ears.

"What did you do to me?" Naruto stood up and grinned, the Kyuubi having already healed his grazed lung, and wiped the trickle of blood from his chin.

"When I kicked you, I sent a blast of chakra into your brain, completely scrambling your brainwaves." Naruto stumbled forward a few steps and ripped the seal off of the kunai embedded into the ground, releasing the barrier. Just as the ANBU unit descended into the arena, a man with an orange mask popped into existence next to Itachi. He grabbed Itachi's arm and the disappeared just as quickly. The four turned at a mumbled 'damnit' from Naruto. He closed his eyes and fell forward to be caught by Hinata, but none of the ANBU failed to miss the change in the boy, and it shocked them all exponentially.

For his eyes had been a deep, pure golden colour with five, small thin blue rings dispersed evenly throughout his iris.

**WOW! Over four thousand words! In one chapter. BTW, to any of you who may think this seems rushed with all the time skips, Arc I of Uzumaki Reborn is merely a long prologue leading up to after Naruto leaves the village with Jiraiya. Also, Naruto has unlocked the second stage of the Imozogan, the first being completely blue eyes, the second golden eyes with the five tiny blue rings. I plan on having two more chapters after this, making this story about eight to nine thousand words, but once I start Arc II there will be fewer time skips. Also, Naruto`s Doujutsu will be explained in Arc II, maybe two to four chapters into the story.**

_If you cannot explain it __**simply**__, then you do not understand it well enough.- Albert Einstein._


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